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You are here: Home / Newsletters / The Selling Newsletter September 2012

The Selling Newsletter September 2012

September 1, 2012 By maurasf

The Selling Newsletter for Sales Professionals

September 2012

SALES QUOTE

“Do not say a little in many words, but a great deal in a few.”
-Pythagoras

From Monday Morning Sales Tips by Maura Schreier-Fleming

For Salespeople…

As you plan for your selling, think about how you can communicate your selling message in as few words as possible. Why? Because too many salespeople are in love with the sound of their voice and that hurts their selling. They talk too much in “techie” speak thinking that impresses the customer. Or worse, they simple talk about “stuff” (think sports), thinking that builds rapport. The tools of your craft are your words. Your customer judges you by what you say. The more you are talking means that the customer is talking less. Who knows more about your customer’s concerns, issues and problems? He does. So if you’re taking the customer’s talking time, you are minimizing the learning you are doing. When your words are filler, you detract from your credibility. So plan to speak less and say more. You’ll sell more, too.

Sales tip: Your goal is for you to talk 20% of the time and your customers talk 80% of the time during your sales call.
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THE BLOG S AND OTHER COLUMNS

I’m now writing The Real Deal, a column on women in business for Allbusiness.com Hope you’ll read more ideas so you can achieve your success in business.

You can get RSS feed for the blog.

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THE SELLING IDEAS FOR THE MONTH TO SELL MORE NOW

Do You Gamble With Your Selling?

Are you a gambler? Apparently many people are. According to the 2006 Gross Annual Wager Report, Americans lost nearly $91 billion on all forms of gambling combined. That’s a lot of loot. Much of it is lost in casinos. Casinos do a great job of understanding human behavior to get people to gamble away their money. Your sales are hopefully not a game of chance. You still need to understand customer behavior so you are more likely to sell.

Offer choices. People make decisions by comparing one choice to another. The persuasion principle is known as contrast. Do you ever notice that off-white fabric looks dingy only when it’s next to bright white fabric? That’s contrast. Contrast is used in business to make decisions. When there are multiple choices, we compare one to the others. When in doubt, if there’s only one choice, it’s harder to make a buying decision. Why? There’s nothing to compare it to. If you submit bids, do you only offer one choice to your customers? That is a mistake.

I worked with a consulting company. They offered one program as the solution for each bid. It was basically a take it or leave it proposal. They weren’t as successful as they should have been. Their success rate was 50%. I asked if the program they present in each bid could be broken into three offerings: a low priced version, a medium priced version with a few more options and the highest price offering with the most options. It could. I suggested that they change their proposals to offer the one proposal that they would have offered in the past as the low cost option. Then offer two higher priced options. I predicted what they will find is that more companies select the middle priced offering.

Here’s why. A wine expert recently told me that in the restaurant business, the most highly marked up bottle of wine is not the least expensive bottle in a category, but the second lowest. Why? People don’t want to be seen as cheap by ordering the lowest price bottle. They select the second cheapest. When you bid with three choices, you can tap into people not wanting to appear cheap and picking your lowest priced offering.

What do you wear? If you’re looking to get every advantage you can in selling, it’s wise to be liked by your prospects. Why? When people trust and like you, you are more persuasive. Blue is the most preferred color by men and women in America today. It is also preferred internationally. Red is second choice for both, too. When you are considering what to wear for business appointments, why not tap into color preferences? I’ve seen research that says that men who wear blue suits outsell men who wear brown suits by a significant amount. That’s the preference which leads to being liked.

Formal attire is more persuasive than informal attire. Think men in long sleeved oxford shirts versus men in short sleeved oxford shirts. Have you ever seen the President of the United States wearing a tie in a shirt sleeved white shirt? Never. More skin is perceived as less power or authority. Less skin has more power or authority. People tend to comply with people who are in a position of authority. I advise women executives to wear suit jackets when meeting with senior executives because of this. I got an argument from one woman. She said, “Michelle Obama wears sleeveless dresses.” I replied, “If your husband is the most powerful man in the world, you can, too.”

You’ll never see a clock or a window to see outside when you are in a casino. Casino owners know how to keep gamblers focused on betting. When you use persuasion strategies in your business, you’ll help your customers focus on buying from you. That’s a sure bet to take.
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ACTION ITEMS

1. Create 3 offers for your products, a low, medium and high offer.
2. Coordinate your tie or clothing colors to the primary logo color of the companies you are calling on this week. See if this subtle rapport builder helps you sell more.

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DID YOU KNOW?

• 75% of Apple’s revenue comes from iPhone and iPad

• 67 million iPads have been sold so far

• Apple makes an amazing $6116 per square foot

Source: https://techwelkin.com/statistics-trivia-apple-corporation-infographic
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Programs
You can check for current programs.
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Here are some selling tools to help you sell more now. Click on the photo to find out more!
Monday Morning Sales Tips : A book that has quick ideas for you to be more successful in sales.
Real-World Selling: A book with selling skills and strategies that work in the real world of sales. Secrets of Persuasion: Audio CD for the clues to use to speed-read people and close more business.

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*What was your last “mistake?” Did you make it before? There’s nothing wrong with making mistakes in sales provided you are making different mistakes. (You are learning from them!)

About the principal

Would you take auto mechanics classes when you buy a car? Maura did because she wanted to be able to work on her car. She takes that same approach to selling. She can show you how to get below the surface of selling to learn why and how different strategies work. She will show you which skills to implement that will shorten your sales cycle and increase your sales. She was Mobil Oil's first female Lubrication Engineer in the United States and one of Chevron's top 5 salespeople in the country. She knows what works for sales.

"I would recommend your work to other sales organizations who want to get better results from improved selling strategies."
Jamey Rootes
President
Houston Texans

Sales Expert at Allbusiness.com

Selling is the easiest job in the world. Just ask anyone who is not in sales. Read Maura’s ideas on “more brain…less mouth” selling to make your selling easier and more successful.

Maura’s Allbusiness blog posts

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